Lament of an Outsider
by Ragdoll753
Summary: When a young girl accidentally comes upon the Holiday Worlds, she slips into a place that's hard to forget, and a secret is told to her that will change her life completely...I realize the summary isn't so great, but the story will be good, I promise! RR
1. An Interesting Discovery

Emily twirled through the forest, her waist-length sheet of dark brown hair flying wildly behind her. She sang to herself, a wordless song that carried no real tune, but was beautiful all the same.

She loved the forest; it was her favorite place above all else. She enjoyed the lush green trees and wildly over-grown vegetation. She took in her surroundings in all their glory as she danced through the trees. There were many twisting paths in these woods, but Emily had a good sense of direction on which she relied frequently.

At only thirteen, Emily was tall and very skinny. She had ghostly pale skin, but pretty features. Her pale skin and thin frame made her look extremely delicate, and she really was so, despite her efforts to be strong. She had huge, sparkling eyes that carried an odd trait – they changed color with her emotion.

Admittedly, she found them to be pretty cool, and loved their uniqueness. However, being one who preferred to keep her feelings locked up inside, she disliked that they gave others the ability to so easily read her thoughts. She had taught herself to change them at will, and often kept them stony gray – the hardest color to read. At the moment, however, her eyes were a soft shade of gray with flecks of gold to show how relaxed she was in the woodland setting.

She wore an ankle-length, powder blue skirt and a white tank top. It was an unusually warm day in October, and she was taking full advantage of the nice change in temperature. Her feet were bare, as usual, and they felt good against the soft soil that covered the forest floor.

Her eyes were closed and a small, contented smile touched her lips as she continued to dance and sing.

Suddenly, her toes felt a root, and her ankle caught on it. Her eyes opened, and she let out a small shriek as she fell to the ground.

"Owww…" she said, rubbing her ankle. She stood and brushed the dirt from herself. Once she was satisfied with the cleanliness of her skirt, she looked up and gasped at the sight that greeted her eyes.

She stood in the center of a ring of tall trees, but these were not normal trees…Each had what looked to be a painting on it. There was one with a heart and another with a shamrock. She continued to look around and realized that these paintings represented holidays. Of course! There was one with an Easter egg, and one with a Christmas tree. Finally, Emily's gaze came to the tree that she immediately took to be her favorite – Halloween. A large Jack-O-Lantern was painted onto this one.

She couldn't believe what she'd found. It was all so amazing. She stepped toward the Christmas tree one, and on closer examination realized that it was not a painting, but a door! All of them were doors, and being curious girl she was, she obviously wasn't going to leave them unopened.

She stepped over to the Jack-O-Lantern tree, and placed her hand lightly on the knob. She looked around cautiously, and once she was satisfied that no darts were going to fly out of booby traps, turned the doorknob. The Jack-O-Lantern swung open from the tree with ease, and Emily peered inside.

"Hmm…" she said thoughtfully, her voice echoing around the inside of the tree. This was all so strange, she decided she had better go home to find some useful supplies, then come back and examine the doorway more carefully, before stepping inside. She turned to go, but suddenly felt a breeze stirring through the trees. She let the soft wind caress her cheeks, basking in their gentleness. Then suddenly the breeze turned much harder. Her hair and skirt whipped around her. She felt herself stumbling backwards, and then she was swallowed up by the blackness inside of the Halloween Tree. She screamed as she fell through the darkness, wondering where in the world she would end up.


	2. A World of Surprises

As Emily continued to tumble through the dark air, her mind was running a mile a minute. Where would she end up? Why were there these strange trees in the forest? Surely falling this long would be the death of her. And then, the darkness began to move away slightly. She let out a final scream, and hit the ground very hard.

Colliding with the hard ground had knocked all the breath out of her, and she lay there coughing for several minutes. Her head was spinning and she seemed in a daze. She stood, her entire body trembling violently from the force of hitting the ground and the terrifying ideas that were popping into her mind.

She turned three-hundred-sixty degrees, and took in her surroundings. She stood in a cemetery, obviously somewhere far from the woods she had just left. It was night in this place, and the moon glowed yellow and huge in the sky. Much bigger than Emily had ever seen at her home. There was a strange-looking hill off to her left, and straight ahead of her was the gate that would lead out of the cemetery.

Her eyes had turned electric blue with fear, and she wasn't sure what to do. Leaving the cemetery might be a good plan, but what if the people were dangerous? Plus, that would be leading her away from the way she had come and that didn't seem a good idea…

Still, she couldn't just sit here and hope that the portal she had entered through would randomly appear out of nowhere. This was all too overwhelming; she didn't know what to do, where she was, where she should go next.

Her head felt strange, and she wondered fleetingly if maybe she had gotten a concussion. Darkness clouded the edges of her vision, and she fell to her knees. Her head turned to the left as she thought she saw some movement from the corner of her eye. She fell backwards so that now she was lying on the cold ground.

Before unconsciousness completely overtook her, she saw a strange, spidery-looking fellow standing over her, looking at her with confusion. He was tall, and extremely thin with long limbs.

The word "skeleton" passed through her mind, but she brushed it away. That wasn't possible. She let her eyes close, and felt that man lift her with ease. She tried to protest, but no sound escaped her lips, and darkness covered her.

"Is she dead?"

"Of course she isn't dead, she's breathing!"

"But she's so _pale_!"

"Such a thin young thing…"

"Where did she come from?"

"Jack found her in the cemetery."

"What are we going to do with her?"

Emily could hear a handful of strange voices speaking near her. Her entire body was weighed down with exhaustion, and she struggled to remember what was going on. At first her mind brought only a small stream of memories. The forest…Strange trees…Falling…

Suddenly, the stream turned into a river, and pictures flooded her mind. She had found that strange Jack-O-Lantern tree, and fallen through it to the cemetery. She remembered losing consciousness, and being picked up by that spidery-looking man.

With a good deal of strength, her eyes opened, and she sat bolt upright in bed. The scene that greeted her was a bizarre and terrifying one. All around her, there were people – no, not people, monsters! What were these horrible creatures? They looked fit only for a small child's nightmare.

Chills ran down her spine, and she tried desperately to comprehend what was going on. A dream. Surely this was all just a terrible dream. There was no other explanation.

Yet, everything around her seemed so _real_. Her breath was coming in short gasps, and she felt extremely dizzy. She grabbed the edges of the bed she had been placed in, to keep herself from falling to the floor. The things around her were all staring at her, obviously as interested in her as she was in them.

"Excuse me!" she heard a strong voice call from the back of the crowd. "Excuse me, coming through!"

The skeletal man from the previous night was pushing his way through the group, and kneeled when he reached her side. When he saw that she was awake, he beamed at her.

There was no doubt about it. In the light, she could see quite clearly that this man was most definitely a skeleton. This was all so overwhelming. Emily tried to grasp what was going on, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't make sense of it.

"Where am I?" Emily asked, in barely more than a whisper. Then, raising her voice, she asked, "Who are you?"

The man continued to smile at her. "Emily – !"

"How do you know my name?!" Emily asked, her voice becoming panicky.

The man put a bony hand on her shoulder for comfort, but all it achieved was to send a shiver down her spine. "Emily…I'm Jack…Your father…"

A/N: My apologies for the rather soap-opera-ish twist there at the end.


	3. Denial

Emily raised an eyebrow at the man. She was about to respond when a woman with long, red hair and stitches all over her body came to her side and flung her arms around Emily.

"Oh, Emily!" she cried. "I'm so happy you're home!" the woman pulled away, and looked Emily up and down, smiling at her. "We've all missed you so much…I'm Sally." The woman said, remembering she had not introduced herself. "I'm Jack's wife…Your mother."

This was very hard for her to take, obviously. It couldn't be possible. It just couldn't be! She already had parents, a mother and a father back in Massachusetts. She'd had a brother and friends there. Now they were trying to tell her that's not where she was supposed to be?

Emily didn't know what to think. She couldn't stay here, and surely they didn't expect her to.

"You're…You're my…" she said softly to Jack, who nodded his head and continued to smile. Emily pointed to Sally. "And she's my...?"

"Yes, sweetie," Sally said softly.

Emily distractedly ran a hand through her long dark hair. "I have to think about this…" she said softly. She stood abruptly, a head rush greeting her, and pushed through the crowd that looked just as astonished by Jack and Sally's news as she was.

"Emily, wait!" she heard Jack call, but she ignored it. She ran quickly down a rickety spiral staircase, and hurried through the strange house until she located the front door. She threw it open, and hurtled down the front steps. She had no idea where she was going, but she had to get away to someplace she could be alone. She kept running until she had made her way back to the cemetery.

She ran in the direction of the strange, curling hill she had seen, but stopped suddenly when her arm fell off! She let out a scream, and turned around. There was absolutely no blood, only a thin thread coming from her shoulder where her arm had parted from her body.

She looked all over herself, and realized that stitches had appeared all over her, almost identical to those of the woman, Sally. Some on her legs, one around each ankle and wrist, several on each of her arms including the one that had fallen off. She picked the arm up from the ground and viewed it in astonishment. What was happening to her? What had these horrible creatures turned her into?

She stumbled to a tall gravestone, and hid behind it, holding her face in the hand that remained attached to her.

"Emily!" she heard Jack calling. She peered over the top of the grave. His back was to her at the moment, as he checked behind tombstones. "Emily, come back! Where are you?" He still wasn't looking in her direction, and she took a chance. Turning around, she made for the edge of the forest on the opposite side of the graveyard. She ran as fast as she could, but knew Jack had spotted her. His long legs gave him quite an advantage over her, and he could run much faster.

He had soon caught up with her, and grabbed her wrist. Knowing now the abilities of such strange limbs, Emily grabbed the thread on the stitch around her wrist and pulled on it. Her hand came free, and she ran, taking advantage of the fact that Jack was so surprised.

Now missing her right arm and left hand, she ran deep into the heart of the forest, making many twists and turns so as to throw Jack off her trail. She once more trusted her good sense of direction to get her out incase she were to decide to go back to the town.

She fell to her knees, tears streaming down her stitched face. She willed herself to have courage, but could find none in this horrific place.

((AN: Grrr, sorry for the short chappy!))


	4. Worry and Tears

Jack walked gloomily back to Skellington Manor, wondering what he was going to tell Sally. That their daughter had run away, and he had no idea how to find her. He stepped through the front door, into the near-empty house. The crowd from earlier had dispersed, and Jack quickly found Sally washing dishes in the kitchen.

She immediately noticed the obvious, and sighed. Her husband looked absolutely heart-broken.

"I was so sure she'd be excited by the news…" he said.

"And I'm sure she'll love it eventually…" said Sally, putting a hand on Jack's shoulder. "She just needs some time. It's a rather startling thing for a girl to find out that her whole life has been a lie, you know…" she sat next to Jack. "She'll come around, just let her do it on her own."

Jack smiled slightly, and hugged his wife. "I hope so…" he said softly, kissing the top of Sally's head.

-------------------------------

Back in the woods, Emily was sobbing, her back leaning against a tree. She was falling apart – both physically and mentally. She didn't know what to do, where to go. She had no idea how to get back to Massachusetts, and the thought of going back to that terrifying town scared her half to death. But it was starting to grow dark, and she had no wish to be in this unknown forest at night.

She slowly stood, her legs, shaking, and closed her eyes. She sent up a little prayer to any God or Goddess that came to mind, asking that they help her find the path to the right choice.

Eyes still closed, she began walking in one direction, hoping that the powers that be were to help her find the path that destiny had chosen for her.

-------------------------------

"Sally, it's getting dark, and there are werewolves in that forest!" cried Jack, his frustration gradually growing inside him.

"Don't worry," Sally said soothingly, although she couldn't help but feel a little uneasy as well. "I'm sure no one would dare hurt the Pumpkin King's daughter." She spoke the words with a certainty that she most definitely did not honestly feel.

Jack paced the room, wondering where in the world Emily could be. "I've got to go find her, Sally!" he said decidedly. "I can't let her be out there alone."

Emily's long, thin hand that she had taken off to get away from Jack sat on the table, drumming its fingers.

"Jack, wait." Sally said. "Let me do it, I can talk to her."

"But how will you find her?" asked Jack. "I don't want the both of you out there alone, lost in the woods with werewolves on your tail."

"I'll just have to trust to my woman's intuition…" Sally said. "Don't worry about me, I can do this, and it's more than likely she'll listen to her mother over her father." Before Jack could reply, Sally picked up her daughter's hand, and stepped out the front door, eager to find her lost child.


	5. Some Well Deserved Q and A

Emily walked through the cold forest, shivering slightly. She still wore only her skirt and tank top and the frosty Autumn evening had set in.

The arm that had fallen off, she was carrying in the crook of her left arm, having no hand to hold onto it with. "What have I done?" Emily asked herself. She was lost in the middle of a forest she didn't know, in the middle of the night.

She let out a small gasp, as she heard a twig snap somewhere in the trees off to her left. She stood completely still, her heart racing. Another snap, and she started to run. She shot through the trees, her stitched legs working as fast as they could manage. She looked over her shoulder as she ran, and saw nothing, but continued to run all the same. She turned her head back around just in time to run into Sally.

She let out a scream as she fell backwards.

The woman kneeled on the ground in front of Emily. Emily spotted her missing hand in Sally's pocket, and it jumped out and waved to her.

Sally smiled at her, but Emily did not return the warm gesture. Sally picked up the hand and looked at it for a moment, then to the arm that Emily had dropped as she fell. "I can help you sew these back on, you know…" Sally offered.

"O-okay…" Emily said, seeing no reason to avoid getting all her limbs back. Sally smiled again, and took needle and thread from her pocket.

"It's very simple, once you get the hang of it," Sally said, as she put Emily's hand back where it belonged.

With her arm and hand back on her body, Emily relaxed a little. Sally put her arm around the girl's shoulders.

"It'll be okay, dear," she said softly. "But at the moment, we need to get you out of here, these woods can be dangerous at night." She helped Emily to her feet, and led her back towards the cemetery.

Back at the manor, Jack was worried sick. He couldn't sit still, and his mind was racing. He tried to block out the sound of Zero barking in the background.

-------------------------------------

"Shush, Zero!" Jack called, but Zero continued to howl. Jack groaned. "What is it?!" he yelled at the ghost dog. Zero whimpered, then flew towards the front door, just as Sally stepped in with her arm around Emily.

Jack rushed toward them, and put his arms around the girl. "Oh, thank God!" he cried. Emily kept her eyes downcast, and stayed silent.

"I told you I could find her…" Sally said pointedly. Jack laughed and kissed Sally on the cheek.

This all felt so strange to Emily. They claimed to be her parents, and really did act as though they were, but she needed some questions answered.

"You have to explain all of this to me…" Emily said. "If I'm your daughter, then why did I live in Massachusetts for the first thirteen years of my life?"

"Ahh…" Jack said. "A reasonable question. Come…" he led her and his wife over to the fireplace, and sat down. "Emily, you must understand, the year before you were born, I had killed the Boogeyman - !"

"The what?" Emily laughed. He couldn't have seriously just said the Boogeyman. The Boogeyman was the evil creature that, as a little girl, she had thought to live in her bedroom closet.

"The Boogeyman…" Sally said. "Long story short, he was this evil man that kidnapped Santa Claus, then tried to kill us…"

Emily nodded her head, and decided not to inquire about Santa Claus.

"Anyway," Jack continued. "I am the Pumpkin King, and while the Boogeyman was dead, some of his loyal followers still remained. We wanted terribly to keep you with us, but if you stayed here, we feared that your life would be in constant danger.

"So we sent you off to the United States. We found a nice family, explained to them the situation, and told them that eventually you would find your way back to us. They promised never to speak of Halloween Town to anyone, and keep you safe while we worked on the issue of making our Town a safe environment for our daughter. We never wanted to give you up, but we had no choice, I'm afraid. No one in our world knew about you, either, so that none of our enemies would be able to find you in the other world." He finished.

Emily wasn't entirely sure what to feel, and her eyes changed color several times as her emotions went this way and that. Finally they rested on black – sorrow. This all would have been so much simpler if she had been here her whole life.

"Okay…" she said, another question rising to the surface of her mind. "Why didn't I have these…things all over me when I was back in Massachusetts?" she asked, gesturing to the stitches that covered her.

"Well, naturally the marks would make you stand out like a sore thumb, and you would obviously have some questions that your foster parents would have trouble answering. We made them disappear while you were in that world, and now that you have returned so have your stitches." Explained Jack.

"Will I ever be able to visit my old family and friends?" asked Emily, hoping the answer would be yes. She wouldn't be able to bear never seeing them again.

"Of course, honey," answered Sally, and Emily sighed with relief. "Not right away, but we will allow you to see them sometimes. If at all possible, we may be able to arrange them visiting you here as well, that is, if we can trust that they will keep our secret safe."

Emily smiled. Maybe this wouldn't be quite so bad, after all. Of course, it would take a certain amount of time for her to get used to life here in Halloween Town. But if she were allowed to see her old friends and family, then she saw no reason not to stay. If nothing more, she could at least try it out for a bit.

"Well…" she said after a long pause. "It's been quite an eventful day…I think I'll be off to bed…" she stood and began to walk away, then turned. "Where exactly is my bedroom?"

Sally smiled, and stood up as well. "This way." She said, leading Emily up some stairs. They soon reached a large room with a small fire crackling in the fireplace, and a cozy-looking bed in one corner. Emily sat on the bed, said goodnight to Sally, and fell backwards onto her bed once Sally had left.

She still wasn't sure she trusted this. She could barely believe that she had trusted them thus far. It was a rather far-fetched idea. She thought of her parents back in Massachusetts, then shook the thought from her head. According to Jack and Sally, those two people back in Massachusetts weren't really her parents. Emily didn't know what to think. She tossed complicated thoughts back and forth in her head until exhaustion took its toll, and she drifted into sleep.


	6. High Expectations

Emily woke the next morning, well rested. She yawned, and stretched, thinking of all that had happened the previous day. She held a hand up over her head and looked at the strange new arm, covered in stitches.

"Hmm…" she said softly. She stood, and walked over to the dresser that had been placed in here for her. She opened the top drawer and found a good number of outfits, none of which she would ever have considered wearing. Everything in the drawer was completely black. She had never worn all black before, except at her Great Grandmother's funeral. But now, it felt different. Black felt like a good color even if she had only ever worn light colored clothes before. She selected a knee-length black dress with long, flowing sleeves.

After putting the dress on, she viewed herself in the mirror. The black made her feel different, somehow. Not like her usual, cheery self. It was a strange contrast with her deathly pale skin and made her look rather strange. She liked it, though. Being tall and thin the color fit her nicely.

She stepped over to a large chest with a huge mirror placed on top of it. The chest was covered in a number of items: a black hairbrush, several black hair elastics, and a wooden jewelry box.

She opened the jewelry box, and a hauntingly beautiful melody began to play. She looked through the strange pieces of jewelry and quickly found a lovely necklace that she clasped around her thin neck. It was a simple, thin gold chain with a beautiful garnet pendant.

No shoes on her feet, she stepped down the stairs into the kitchen.

"Hi…" she said softly to Sally. Then, thinking it was only proper finished, "Mom." The word felt strange when it was directed at Sally.

"Good morning, Emily," Sally said. "I've made breakfast." She gestured to the table, where an odd array of food-looking items sat. None were recognizable as things Emily would have eaten back in Massachusetts.

She took a seat at the table and looked suspiciously at the strange food. Deciding to put off eating as long as she could, she asked, "Where's Jack – I mean…Dad?" again that strange feeling that it didn't seem right to associate someone she barely knew with the word "dad".

"Oh, he's at some meeting with the mayor – oh, the mayor!" Sally cried, interrupting herself. "He'll want to meet you, I believe…Anyway, eat!" she ordered.

Emily looked at the food on the table, and grabbed a dish full of round, black objects that looked something like marbles.

"What are these?" she asked.

Sally peered over at the plate. "Oh, those are bat eyes…" she said casually.

"Oh!" Emily said, dropping the dish back onto the table. "And, uh…And this?" she picked up a bowl full of a thick, green liquid.

"Beetle wing soup," said Sally.

Emily was now trying her hardest not to be sick. Finally, she picked up a plate of some kind of pastry that looked edible enough. "Ok, what are these?" she asked, hoping that they weren't filled with snake jelly, or something of the like.

"Those are croissants." Said Sally, and Emily could have jumped for joy. Something she recognized.

Emily grabbed several of the flaky pastries, and ate them quickly. They were delicious, to say the least.

'_Well_,' she thought. '_If Sally made something so good, maybe the other things aren't quite so bad as I thought…_'

She grabbed the bowl of soup, and took an extremely small spoonful. She raised it to her lips, and sipped some of it. At first she wasn't sure what to think. She had tasted so little, she couldn't really taste anything. Taking a slightly larger sip, she realized that this was something she was going to like quite a bit.

Soon enough, she had tasted everything on the table, enjoying each bit more than the last. Maybe this would be a place worth staying…Maybe…

Several hours later, Emily was in a strange automobile, on her way to meet the Mayor of Halloween Town. Sally was driving, and Jack was already there. When they reached the town hall, Emily stepped out, her bare feet touching the cold stone ground.

She looked over at Sally, who waved goodbye and drove off. Emily sighed, straightened her dress and walked inside.

She saw no one inside, and wasn't sure where she was supposed to go.

"Hello!" she called. "Anyone here? Mayor? Dad!"

A short man with a tall hat, and a frown on his face stepped out of a room on Emily's right. She looked at him with her brow furrowed. "Mayor?" she asked, hoping this was he. "I'm Emily, Jack's daughter…"

Without warning, the man's head spun around, revealing a completely new face that grinned hugely at her. Passing this off as something to be found normal in this town, she listened to the man without question.

"Yes!" he said in a jaunty voice. "I'm the Mayor, right this way, Miss…" he said, gesturing into the room he had just come out of. She stepped inside and he followed her.

Once in the room, Emily smiled at Jack as he looked up from a pile of papers he was leaning over. She took a seat next to Jack, and the two of them gave their full attention to the Mayor.

"We are so pleased to have you here, Emily," the Mayor began. "Our Pumpkin King has had a daughter! I can still hardly believe it."

Emily smiled, and nodded her head. This Mayor was an eccentric fellow.

"As you know, Halloween is coming up," he continued. "And we would be more than happy to see you in this year's celebration with your father."

"Oh…" Emily said, slightly surprised. "What exactly will I do?"

The conversation that followed was definitely a strange one by Emily's standards. The Mayor seemed quite convinced that she had a number of strange talents that she most certainly did not possess. She tried her hardest to find compromise in it, and still be accepted into their strange festival.

"Now," the Mayor began. He took out several pieces of paper, and passed them to Emily. "That will be the beginning of the show. There are a number of other citizens taking part, and you won't come in until the finale…"

Emily looked over the papers in confusion. None of it made any sense! She decided not to as questions, on the off chance that everything would be explained in time.

"This is you, here…" the Mayor said, pointing to a crude stick-figure drawing on one sheet. "You will be waiting in the fountain until you are to come out for your piece – "

"Wait, I can't breathe underwater!" Emily said, the Mayor completely ignoring her lack of gills. He continued in the same way.

"When you get your cue, you will jump from the fountain, aflame," He said.

Had he given her the opportunity, she would have pointed out the facts that she could not light herself on fire; she wasn't fire-proof; that it wasn't possible to light a soaking-wet individual on fire; and, once more, she could not breathe underwater!

"Er – "she tried, but was immediately interrupted.

"From there, you will do a series of simple acrobatic tricks – you know nothing too hard, maybe some cartwheels or back flips."

"I'm not a gymnast, Mayor !"

"After which, you will join your father in summoning rain which will put out your fire."

"I can't control the weather!"

"And then it's all very simple – some plain tricks. Sword swallowing, and the like…Understand?"

Emily was completely astounded, and unfortunately speechless. This lack of declining the offer made the Mayor immediately assume that she was ready for the job.

"Very good! I'll see you two tomorrow and we can start rehearsing…"


End file.
